Ignorance and illiteracy facilitated the trafficking and forced marriage of a 13-year-old mentally challenged girl to a Greenbushes man old enough to be her grandfather, the Port Elizabeth High Court has heard.
In a plea explanation, an elderly KwaZulu-Natal woman, who pleaded not guilty to two charges of human trafficking on Tuesday, first said she did not approve of the marriage between the teenager and the 61-year-old man.
However, the woman, 63, later conceded that it was because she did not know that the laws regulating customary marriages had changed.
The woman said she was under the impression that the girl was 15 or 16 at the time and did not know that the legal age, according to the Customary Marriages Act, was 18.
All three accused are not being named in compliance with an order of the court.
The woman, along with the teenager’s uncle, who is also 61, and the purported husband, have been charged with two counts of human trafficking.
The “husband” faces two additional charges of rape.
He and the woman pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
The uncle pleaded guilty to a charge of “human trafficking concluding [in] a forced marriage with the purpose of sexual exploitation”.
He pleaded not guilty to a separate charge of trafficking of persons, which is different in context.
It is alleged the woman and the uncle had arranged for the 61-year-old man to marry the girl after she went to live with the woman after the death of her mother.
The uncle and husband are alleged to have entered into lobola negotiations.
The girl was subsequently sent from Bizana to Port Elizabeth to take on the role of wife.
During November 2016 and April 2017, the girl was allegedly raped numerous times.
She was eventually helped by another woman and reported the matter to police.
In his plea explanation, the uncle, who was initially the girl’s guardian after the death of her mother, claimed that he struggled to look after the girl before sending her off to live with the 63-year-old woman.
“I battled to control her, she stayed out late at night and I believe she was sexually active,” the uncle said.
After the girl allegedly stopped attending school, the woman volunteered to look after her and took her to Bizana.
According to the uncle, it was then that the other accused decided to marry the girl.
The uncle admitted that the woman did not approve of the marriage, but claimed the girl had called him to convince him to allow her to marry the man from Greenbushes.
“We agreed that [he] would only pay a portion of the lobola then and the rest when she turned 18 and when he could consummate the marriage,” the uncle claimed.
It was agreed the man would pay 11 cows, but he only paid R20,000 – the equivalent of four cows – at the time and the rest later.
After the negotiations started, the girl was sent to stay with the daughter of the woman and attended school.
According to the uncle, the girl then decided she wanted to move to Bizana and live in the man’s house there.
A total of R30,000 was allegedly paid over at that stage.
The uncle claimed that he only learnt the girl had been brought to Port Elizabeth after he was arrested. After the girl was married off, the woman claimed her daughter no longer wanted to look after her because she was married and the girl was sent to Port Elizabeth.
“I deny knowing there was anything wrong with sending [the girl] to Port Elizabeth, I thought I was assisting her with transport,” she said.
Prosecutor Zelda Swanepoel said that the state opposed the plea explanation of the uncle, specifically regarding his guilty plea.
“The facts in the plea explanation differ [from] what the state will present as evidence,” Swanepoel said.
This prompted judge Glen Goosen to enter a plea of not guilty.
The girl, who is now 15 but has the mental capacity of a nine-year-old, began her testimony in a closed court, assisted by an intermediary.
However, when she said she did not understand what it meant to take an oath, Goosen asked her whether she understood the difference between the truth and lying.
She said she understood the difference and gave an explanation, which Goosen accepted.
The case continues.